It's not a bad font. But there's a zillion handwriting fonts, why this one? Does it have the same metrics as Comic Sans or something?posted by Nelson at 6:55 AM on April 7, 2014

That lower case "e" is just so cute! I'll be sure to pick this font next time I write a memo to a fifth-grader.posted by kozad at 6:58 AM on April 7, 2014 [7 favorites]

I looked at that page with Javascript disabled and I thought "Heck, he's just taken Helvetica and re-labled it Comic Neue to trick all the font illiterates into using a real font." Which in retrospect would have been a better idea than, you know, actually redesigning Comic Sans.posted by srt19170 at 6:58 AM on April 7, 2014 [8 favorites]

It looks OK... but it no longer really looks like a hand-lettered comic book typeface. There are plenty of *good* comic fonts available on the net, many of them for free.posted by kikaider01 at 7:03 AM on April 7, 2014

It looks like my locked down browser is rendering the whole thing in Arial.posted by ZeusHumms at 7:05 AM on April 7, 2014 [3 favorites]

Sorry the entire world can't all be done in stark Eurotrash Swiss type. Sorry some people like to have fun. Sorry I'm standing in the way of your minimalist Bauhaus-esque fascist snoozefest. Maybe sometime you should take off your black turtleneck, stop compulsively adjusting your Tumblr theme, and lighten the fuck up for once. People love me. Why? Because I'm fun… Need to soften the blow of a harsh message about restroom etiquette? SLAM. There I am. Need to spice up the directions to your graduation party? WHAM. There again. Need to convey your fun-loving, approachable nature on your business' website? SMACK. Like daffodils in motherfucking spring.

I love it when people tilt at windmills. I guess I'm just a sucker for lost causes. It's the romantic in me.posted by valkane at 7:21 AM on April 7, 2014 [5 favorites]

This is better than Comic Sans in almost exactly the same way that Courier Prime is better than Courier New—incrementally. And at my age I'm beginning to appreciate the merits of the Incremental Advantage over the Ill-Advised Revolution. One by agonizing one, the mistakes made by Microsoft are being washed away.posted by Flexagon at 7:24 AM on April 7, 2014 [7 favorites]

I think we must have reached peak Onionization, because I can't tell whether the font-maker is serious or not.posted by immlass at 7:25 AM on April 7, 2014 [10 favorites]

It doesn't completely iron out all the wonkiness of Comic Sans - which I imagine is intentional, otherwise the reaction would probably be a "it looks nothing like Comic Sans!" - but, wow, it's so much more readable as body text. Nice improvement.

If it's not just individual letter scans of Walt Simonson's lettering for Thor, I say fuck it. That's the only Comic typeface I'll ever want or need.posted by penduluum at 7:32 AM on April 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

One by agonizing one, the mistakes made by Microsoft are being washed away.

Comic sans is simply a victim of its own success. People liked it, overused it, so people got sick of it. To call it a "mistake" is a bit like the old Yogi Berraism about the popular restaurant: "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded."

It's also the worst kind of kneejerk reactionary response: "it's popular, therefore it's bad." Nobody bothered to criticize comic sans before people fell in love with it and flogged it to death. In that way the endless bitching about it is no more interesting (or actually aesthetic in its origins) than people bitching about an overplayed hit song or about a fashion fad that's run for a long time.posted by yoink at 7:44 AM on April 7, 2014 [5 favorites]

It's not the ugliness or the popularity per se that is the problem (though it is both ugly and popular); it's that every PC comes with Comic Sans pre-installed. It's a layperson's typeface, much like the many awful Selectric typeball fonts seen in church bulletins of yore. When used in any ostensibly professional context, i.e. advertising or packaging, it strongly conveys the unintentional message, We are not a legitimate business. This is just a thing we're trying because it seemed like it might be fun. Our kids helped! Sometimes that message is intentional, in which case it is almost certainly a calculated lie.

Comic Sans does have many appropriate uses — e.g. block party invitations, a position largely usurped by Facebook — but for any business concern that is bigger than a stall at a farmers market, No.posted by Sys Rq at 8:55 AM on April 7, 2014 [3 favorites]

A while ago, Apple started bundling a font called Chalkboard. It has the same metrics as Comic Sans and the same fun informal style, but manages to not be heinously ugly. Vincent Connare, creator of Comic Sans, cites it as an example of why Comic Sans is so great (see the bottom of the page). He says: "If Comic Sans is Bad then why make something similar?" He doesn't get that they made something similar because it is bad. They had to fix it.posted by zsazsa at 9:16 AM on April 7, 2014 [3 favorites]

for any business concern that is bigger than a stall at a farmers market, No.

So its use by a major international institution like say... the WHO (PDF example), is a serious font faux pas? Because they had a couple years where coversheets on official publications defaulted to Comic Sans.

Then again, I guess when you're outlining the problems of severe malnourishment in refugee camps you do what you can to lighten the mood.posted by Panjandrum at 9:18 AM on April 7, 2014 [2 favorites]

Because of the care Charles Schulz took in his lettering, the lettering of Peanuts is almost as iconic as the characters themselves – and it feels so wrong to cast aside his thoughtful and painstaking efforts by pairing his artwork with a font that evokes email chain letters with GIFs of kittens at the footer. It’s counter to everything we do to maintain the integrity of Peanuts.posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:32 AM on April 7, 2014 [4 favorites]

So its use by a major international institution like say... the WHO (PDF example), is a serious font faux pas?

Sigh. The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog is missing the letter s.

Prrrrrrrrrrrrobably a good thing they used 'The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog," then.

And at the risk of being shunned by all of MeFi, I actually really like this font. It's warm and friendly without being doofy and "SOMEONE NEEDS TO STOP TAKING ALL THE COFFEE" in the office breakroom.posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 9:57 AM on April 7, 2014 [6 favorites]

A Comic Sans-type font can also be good for mockups that are trying to clearly state "this is just a mockup". But even Balsamiq, which we use at work abandoned Comic Sans/Chalkboard a while back and made their own sort of similar one, which I like better.posted by freecellwizard at 10:46 AM on April 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

I tolerate Comic Sans because I'm told it's a dyslexic friendly font. There's other fonts that do the same job (I think Arial, Verdana, Tahoma, ??) and are much easier to look at, but whatever no big. While I think this Comic Neue is nice, I still wouldn't use it for anything other than birthday party invites. But it's nice!posted by one teak forest at 10:48 AM on April 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

No. Kill it. Kill it with fire.posted by mkultra at 11:45 AM on April 7, 2014

Sigh. The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog is missing the letter s.

Prrrrrrrrrrrrobably a good thing they used 'The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog," then.

That was quick. Maybe they read Metafilter.posted by duffell at 12:10 PM on April 7, 2014

"the honesty that made Comic Sans so popular"

So intentional and twee lack of professionalism means honesty now? That explains so much.posted by idiopath at 1:00 PM on April 7, 2014

I'm a primary school teacher, so I use Comic Sans every day. It's dyslexic-friendly and it is one of the few fonts that displays a lowercase a in the same way that people (especially children) learn to write it. Most fonts' lowercase a can be too easily confused with an e for early readers. There are other fonts with this type of a available online, but none of them come as part of the typical Word/Open Office package.

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